For Cubans Fleeing to the U.S., The First Stop Is Often Mexico

Published: October 16, 2007

Cubans are migrating to the United States in the greatest numbers in over a decade, and for most of them the new way to get north is first to head west -- to Mexico -- in a convoluted route that avoids the United States Coast Guard.

American officials say the migration, which has grown into a multimillion-dollar-a-year smuggling enterprise, has risen sharply because many Cubans have lost hope that Ra?astro, who took over as president from his brother Fidel in 2006, will make changes that will improve their lives. Cuban authorities contend that the migration is more economic than political and is fueled by Washington's policy of rewarding Cubans who enter the United States illegally.

In fact, unlike Mexicans, Central Americans and others heading to the southwestern border of the United States, the Cubans do not have to sneak across. They just walk right up to United States authorities at the border, benefiting from lax Mexican enforcement and relying on Washington's ''wet foot, dry foot'' policy, which gives them the ability to become permanent residents if they can reach United States soil.

That is what Jos?uis Savater, 45, a refrigerator repairman from Havana, did in early October to reach southern Florida, which remains the goal for most migrating Cubans.

It took Mr. Savater almost four days to reach Isla Mujeres, Mexico, a coastal island, in a rickety boat made of wood, fiberglass and aluminum and powered by a jury-rigged motor used for irrigating fields. The 15 men and one woman with him took turns bailing.

''It's extremely dangerous,'' Mr. Savater said by telephone as he prepared to leave Canc?or the Mexican border. ''I saw myself dead. I suffered a lot.''

But his next step was far easier: a flight to Matamoros, a border town just across from Brownsville, Tex., with the help of money wired from relatives in Florida. Some American officials are calling this new approach -- Cubans' strolling up to border stations and seeking political asylum -- dusty foot.

Statistics make it clear that although the route is considerably longer, Cubans believe that traveling through Mexico from the tiny bayside village of Cort?and other new launching spots on the western side of Cuba increases their odds of reaching Miami. Almost twice as many -- 11,487 -- took it in fiscal 2007, which ended in September, as in fiscal 2005.

By comparison, the Coast Guard intercepted just 2,861 Cubans crossing the Florida Straits in fiscal 2007, and 4,825 others eluded American authorities, reached United States soil and, under the ''wet foot, dry foot'' policy, applied for residency, according to the Coast Guard.

The figures show that in fiscal 2007, migration from the island reached its highest level since 35,000 Cubans left in a mass exodus in 1994.

''The reason why people are willing to risk their lives to leave Cuba is the lack of hope and expectations,'' Sean Murphy, the United States consul general in Havana, told reporters in early October.

The new route is not just diverting migrants. Smugglers are shifting too, resulting in turf battles that are believed to be behind a string of killings over the summer of Cuban nationals in the Yucat?Peninsula, where many of the migrants come ashore. That area is also crisscrossed by narcotics traffickers, and there is fear that the two businesses could merge.

The new route has attracted the attention of officials throughout the region, since Cubans sometimes go off track and land on other Caribbean islands or farther south in Central America.

Manuel Aguilera de la Paz, Cuba's ambassador to Mexico, told reporters in early October that migration is at the top of the agenda as Mexico and Cuba seek to improve strained relations that prompted the two countries to briefly withdraw their ambassadors in 2004.

In Washington, Thomas A. Shannon Jr., the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, has expressed concern about both the migration and the killings in the Yucat? which have been concentrated near the resort town of Canc?''There is some kind of struggle going on among gangs,'' he said of the violence. He called the new route ''a recent phenomenon.''

The Coast Guard's aggressive patrols in the Florida Straits prompted migrants to turn to the new route, most agree. Those patrols were increased after the 1994 exodus, which led the Clinton administration to adopt the ''wet foot, dry foot'' policy. The Coast Guard returns migrants who are caught at sea to Cuba, where authorities have said they will not face retribution.

''It's practically Mission Impossible to go directly to Miami,'' said an American official who is tracking the issue but did not have approval to speak on the record about it.

In Mexico, however, the coast is far more loosely patrolled and, some say, local authorities are more likely to look the other way for a bribe.

The rocky eastern shore of Isla Mujeres, a speck of an island near Canc?is a popular landing spot. Despite the presence of a Mexican Navy post, Cuban boats land regularly.

''We're looking for Colombian drug dealers, not Cubans,'' said a Mexican Navy enlisted man who was on night watch on a bluff that is the island's highest point.